A company in France has trademarked Anonymous' logo and slogan -- and the hacker group isn't happy about it.

"Twitter user Asher_Wolf picked up on the trademark application [PDF file] yesterday, but the application was first filed with the Institut National De La Propriete Industrielle (INPI) in France on February 16 by Apollinaire Auffret from Early Flicker, encompassing both the Anonymous logo and slogan," writes CNET News' Josh Taylor.

"In what it is calling Operation AnonTrademark the group has vowed to shut down any online activities conducted by the company and want the trademarking cancelled," writes The Register's Iain Thomson. "Given the group's prior conduct, the management at Early Flicker might want to rethink their strategy. The last company to go up against Anonymous directly was security consultants at HBGary Federal, who claimed to have infiltrated Anonymous high command and were going to present a paper on the case at the BSides conference in San Francisco. Less than 24 hours after the company made the announcement, it was comprehensively pwned and had its email servers scraped and published."

"Now some are scratching their heads," writes Forbes' Parmy Olson. "Who is this Paris-based company Early Flicker and its manager Apollinaire Affret, anyway? And who in their right mind would try and trademark a logo that is not only licensed under creative commons, but used prolifically by a network of Internet users who tend to attack those who suppress their online shenanigans? 'I think he’s trolling,' said one Anonymous supporter on one of the online community’s main Internet Relay Chat networks. 'He just wants attention. Free marketing.'"

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